Flood-Tide of Flowers + 

In Holland + 

The laggard winter ebbed so slow + 

With freezing rain and melting snow, + 

It seemed as if the earth would stay + 

Forever where the tide was low, + 

In sodden green and watery gray. + 

But now from depths beyond our sight, + 

The tide is turning in the night, + 

And floods of colour long concealed + 

Come silent rising toward the light, + 

Through garden bare and empty field. + 

And first, along the sheltered nooks, + 

The crocus runs in little brooks + 

Of joyance, till by light made bold + 

They show the gladness of their looks + 

In shining pools of white and gold. + 

The tiny scilla, sapphire blue, + 

Is gently seeping in, to strew + 

The earth with heaven; and sudden rills + 

Of sunlit yellow, sweeping through, + 

Spread into lakes of daffodils. + 

The hyacinths, with fragrant heads, + 

Have overflowed their sandy beds, + 

And fill the earth with faint perfume, + 

The breath that Spring around her sheds. + 

And now the tulips break in bloom! + 

A sea, a rainbow-tinted sea, + 

A splendour and a mystery, + 

Floods o’er the fields of faded gray: + 

The roads are full of folks in glee, + 

For lo⁠—to-day is Easter Day! + 